Search age:

Search in:

The beauty of the bathroom edit

Give your bathroom - and beauty regime - a New Year clean, culling the needless half-empty bottles and jars.

If there's one resolution I'm going to persist with in 2013 it's simplifying my life. Every second woman I meet seems to have this on her to-do list too (how did we all get so busy?), and it's not as simple as it sounds. So I'm starting, belatedly, with the fun bits first: fashion and beauty. Time to simplify the choices. Declutter, reduce and edit, edit, edit!

Colette Werden, image specialist at the venerable Suzan Johnston Training Organization, says we wear 20 per cent of the clothes in our wardrobe 80 per cent of the time. In other words, most of it could go. How often have you opened your bulging closet and found you haven't got anything to wear? You're not being peevish or precious - it is true. Most of the stuff in there, however much it cost, either doesn't fit, doesn't go with anything else, is of an unflattering colour or shape or from another era in your life. Or, it's aspirational - as in ''well, I might need that full-length evening gown one day''.

The same may be true of your bathroom cupboard. How many half-used jars of face cream, dried our deodorant sticks and not-quite-right lipstick shades are in there? When I open the cupboard above the sink, hair products land on my head. I've got a shelf of curl balms, mousses, serums, texturisers and old-school hairsprays competing for space with six types of sunscreen (water-resistant, tinted for face, the one I use only on my decolletage, etc). Why so many? Well, my hair might need beach salt texture one day. Or a slicked look. Or major volumising. Better not get rid of them...

Well, I am. Not the sunscreens - I really do use them all - but all the hair stuff. I'm going to leave the two products I actually do use every day - a Redken mousse for root boost on wet hair before blowdrying and a KMS balm for a bit of reassuring structure afterwards. Simple.

No one needs four types of cleanser (me). Or five variations of mauve eye shadow (me again). Or five half-empty bottles of shampoo (all of us). These just make getting ready a more laboured process.

Werden works in television and has to be able to look her best at short notice. She also loves clothes. But she has reduced her wardrobe to capsule size, where every item works hard and works with just about everything else. ''Then you don't have to think about it. You can just open the cupboard and know that what you bring out is going to be something you really love and something that you look really good in.'' The trick is to get rid of any item that doesn't meet this remit. The same applies to beauty products. Time to get strict and get rid of the dross.

How many pieces of make-up do you suspect you own? Chances are more than you use every day. What's your downfall - your go-to item that you have a weakness for and therefore have far too many of? Mine's eye makeup - all types. Maybe for you it's moisturisers. Or, ahem, hair products.

How bulging are your bathroom cupboards? And have you, like me, got to the stage where you're ready to simplify that?

Advertisement

23 comments so far

I had a chuckle at this article... I actually decluttered my bathroom cupboard on the weekend. I even washed down the walls in that cupboard and the bottom of the shelf! Gone is everything I didn't use. Now I have just:

Very inspirational newbie - I'm going to declutter mine tonight if I don't collapse into a heap on my bed as I pass through my bedroom to the ensuite.

Commenter

lady-android

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 17, 2013, 1:31PM

That's de-cluttered? I must be positively spartan then. Day to day consists of moisturiser after the shower, and a comb through on the hair with an air dry. I've found that without the daily application of makeup, my skin is actually a lot better and healthier. The same with hair - without all the additional products and no blowdrying, it is much healthier. I wear my hair long, so it's easy enough to pin up and a light spritz of hairspray if needed. The only makeup I have is a mascara, blush and eyeliner, and that is used rarely.

Commenter

DC

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 17, 2013, 6:45PM

I am with DC. That huge list of things to me is not even comprehendable. I would go insane having that many products!

Commenter

Funny

Date and time

January 23, 2013, 11:17AM

So true This is actually something I am in the process of doing -started on 2 January - all those half or part used bottles of moisturiser started using them - have gotten rid of half of them already and I had heaps. The shampoos are now for my hsuband to use - I will buy nomore shampoo until these are used up and soap - how many soaps scrubs do I have used - many. Slowly working way through those too. How many shades of red nail polish do I need - now have 1. Didn't really need to 5 differnt types of foundation - now have two (one for when spray tanned and one when not) Slowing working through using everything up and nothing will be bought until it is all finished. Looking forward to all the extra cupboard space in the bathroom

Commenter

alp

Date and time

January 17, 2013, 1:31PM

Are you crazy???? Why are we obsessed with clutter- I like my clutter. I like my stuff. It soothes me and makes me feel happy. Not the anxiety paralysis inducing clutter of unmade beds, messy clothes on floor and items piling out of overstuffed drawers- thats an issue with stoage space and new minimal style design.

The solution was to knock out the little mirrored vanity, install large open shelves and buy a tall glass cabinet like those used to use to display jewellery in a shop and place against the wall.

Every time I walk into my bathroom I feel relaxed. All my products lined up- the endless possibilties. Will I have Jessica Parker-esque curls and volume today with rollers, mousse and curl activator? Or will I straighten and smoothe with a range of serums at my disposal?

Each day I can reinvent myself and feel the optimis of eldness possiblities.

Despite the fact I usually use my daily SPF30 moisutriser (Avena), Lancome lipstick and Bare minerals powder with a quick dab of smoothing srum in my hair, I delight in the possibiilities all my stuff presents.

Sure, all the men in the family have to sand sidewards to use th toilet as it takes up space where once they stood in front of the toilet, but i am happy. Each day for a few minutes I am happy and my day starts with a smile.

Clutter can be good for the soul.

Commenter

lilyorchid

Date and time

January 17, 2013, 1:58PM

LiliorchidI have 8 different types of body wash, it seems frivolous to some but different scents for different moods and some I only every use when I need a bit of cheer (body shop dewberry is no longer available so I need to use it sparingly). Same with my moisturisers, different types for different needsOne person’s clutter is another's treasure to paraphrase I hope you keep enjoying your bathroom (and your men don't knock anything over)

Commenter

Messy Diner

Location

All over the table

Date and time

January 17, 2013, 2:57PM

"Clutter can be good for the soul" - it can also be known as hoarding. Goo hoarding in the case of bathrooms and beauty products. But I am not judging lilyorchid, for I too, am a goo hoarder.

Commenter

Amylee

Date and time

January 17, 2013, 3:16PM

Lilyorchid, I'm glad you love your stuff, but you've also done something creative and made it work. Instead of it being all over the place or stuffed in makeup bags, you've got it where you can see it and will probably use it, even if it is only once in a blue moon. As for me, I find myself getting depressed when it is a mess and I don't have the money to spend on storage systems.With my clothes, I have a rule. If I haven't worn it for a year, it goes. So, every Christmas I have a clear out and purge the wardrobe. This year I included footwear and I filled a decent sized carton with my cast offs. I just now have to co-ordinate the time with my other half to get it to the op shop, as it's too heavy for me to lift, even to get it into the boot of the car.As for the bathroom cupboard, I really need to get in there and have a mighty chuck out. I reckon I've got nail polish fossilising in there! Then there is foundation : different ones for different jobs and shades for different times of the year. Since discovering mineral powder that actually suits my skin, I think the liquids may be able to go, and they've been hanging around a bit too long.For me, clutter is not good for my soul.

Commenter

Robyn

Date and time

January 17, 2013, 4:30PM

I had to giggle at this - I'm a 47 year old woman (public servant, living in a big city) who doesn't wear makeup, and whose skin routine consists of an exfoliant that I use daily in the shower, sorbolene soap, a deodorant, a Natio antioxidant moisturiser, a hand/nail cream and a body moisturiser. That's IT. Nothing else.

I have a salon shampoo and conditioner, plus a leave in conditioner alternating with argan oil for my hair. Oh, and an old bottle of hair spray my daughter left when she moved out. Truly, that's it. I don't even use a hair dryer - just towel dry, deep condition and finger style (long wavy hair). I have one - my younger daughter uses it occasionally. She doesn't have a skin routine. Oh, and I've stopped dying my hair - my badger stripes coming back from my temples look distinguished against my still mostly dark hair